The Old Girl Out Front

Read something awhile ago that has stayed with me...

"When you came into the world, crying,  everyone around you was smiling.  Live a life that when you leave this world,  you'll be smiling and everyone around you is crying".  That is a neat thing to strive for, don't you think? 

Nobody knows what their legacy will be.  Is being nice to folks, putting  on a positive face,  leaving the space we've occupied in better shape, going to get it done?  Leave folks misting up when we go?

I was thinking about this while I was raking leaves today.   We have this huge oak tree in our front yard.  I don't know if my Dad planted it when he and Mom lived here or if they built the house around this tree.  Either way, she's old and she's big....so much so, that her leaves make a mess in the front yard and then some blow over the house and mess up the back yard, as well.  Every fall, I grumble about the ten million leaves I have to rake.   In the spring, all is forgotten and I love the shade and the coolness the old girl provides.

Maybe things will go that way for me.  So folks won't be wailing at my wake but if they're ticked off at me, half the time, and love and appreciate me the rest of the time, like the old oak tree out front, I'm okay with that.